Patient and family engagement is essential to effective and safe diagnosis. OurDX is a previsit online engagement tool to help identify opportunities to improve diagnostic safety in patients and families living with chronic conditions. In this study, researchers implemented OurDX in specialty and primary care clinics at two academic healthcare organizations and examined the potential safety issues and whether patient/family contributions were integrated into the post-visit notes. Qualitative analysis of 450 OurDX reports found that participants contributed important information about the diagnostic process. Participants with diagnostic concerns were more likely to raise concerns about the diagnostic process (e.g., access barriers, problems with tests/referrals, communication breakdowns), which may represent diagnostic blind spots.

Patients and families are encouraged to play an active role in patient safety by, for example, reporting inaccurate or incomplete electronic health record notes after visits. In this study, patients and families at two US healthcare sites (pediatric subspecialty and adult primary care) were invited to complete a survey (OurDX) before their visit to identify their visit priority, recent medical history/symptoms, and potential diagnostic concerns. In total, 7.5% of patients and families reported a potential diagnostic concern, mainly not feeling heard by their provider.

Patients who access their electronic health record (EHR) through a patient portal have identified clinically relevant errors such as allergies, medications, or diagnostic errors. This study focused on patient-identified diagnostic safety blind spots in ambulatory care clinical notes. The largest category of blind spots was diagnostic misalignment. Many patients indicated they reported the errors to the clinicians, suggesting shared notes may increase patient and family engagement in safety.

People with disabilities face barriers to safe, equitable care such as inaccessible equipment and facilities or provider bias. In this study, primary care and specialist physicians described challenges with caring for patients with disabilities. Many expressed explicit biases such as reluctance to care for people with disabilities, invest in accessible equipment, or obtain continuing education to provide appropriate care.

Allowing patients to access their own ambulatory clinical health record has benefits such as identification of errors and increased trust. This study focused on risks and benefits of patient access to mental health care records. Experts suggested the benefits would be similar to those seen in primary care, such as increased patient engagement, with the potential additional benefit of reduced stigmatization.

Engaging patients and families in their own care can improve outcomes, safety, and satisfaction. This study brought patients, families, clinicians and experts together to identify patient-reported diagnostic process-related breakdowns. The group identified 7 categories, 40 subcategories, 19 contributing factors and 11 patient-reported impacts. Breakdowns were identified in each step of the diagnostic process.

… is still a barrier . … Blease C, Salmi L, Hagglund M, et al. COVID-19 and open notes: a new method to enhance …

This study surveyed over 22,800 patients across three health care organizations to assess how often patients who read open ambulatory visit notes perceive mistakes in the notes. The analysis found that 4,830 patients (21%) perceived a mistake in one or more notes in the past 12 months and that 42% of those patients considered the mistake to be somewhat or very serious. The most common very serious mistakes involved incorrect diagnoses; medical history; allergy or medication; or tests, procedures, or results. Older and sicker patients were more likely to report a serious error compared to younger and healthier patients. Using open notes and encouraging patient engagement can improve record accuracy and prevent medical errors

Providing patients – particularly elderly, less educated, non-white, and non-English speaking patients – with access to their medical records via ‘open notes’ can improve engagement in care; however, these demographic groups are also less likely to take advantage of these e-tools. The authors summarize the preliminary evidence and propose steps to increasing use of open note portals among disadvantaged patients.

OpenNotes provides patients with access to their health care provider’s documentation. This study found that patient access to such documentation may have the potential to improve medication adherence. A past PSNet interview discussed the OpenNotes project.

This commentary describes an incident involving diagnostic error and substandard care of a patient with disability. The author cautions against assumptions about individuals with disabilities that can compromise care. A PSNet commentary discussed the impact of diagnostic overshadowing on patient care.

Hospital-wide mortality rates are widely used as a marker of health care quality, but it remains unclear how to most accurately measure them. In this classic study, investigators provided standard hospital discharge data to four vendors who independently calculated hospital mortality rates. These methods produced varying rates of hospital mortality, and classification of hospitals as either higher or lower than average differed depending on the estimation method. These findings demonstrate that in-hospital mortality remains difficult to estimate and underscore the need for caution in considering it a marker of hospital care quality.

Despite considerable federal financial incentives intended to promote electronic health record (EHR) use, as of 2012 only 42.2% of hospitals in the United States had implemented a system that met federal "meaningful use" criteria (which include use of computerized provider order entry with decision support). Rural and nonteaching hospitals were less likely to have implemented an EHR compared with larger urban hospitals.

In this study, better safety climates in emergency departments were associated with more intercepted near misses but not with fewer preventable adverse events.

This study reports on the initial findings of a novel survey intended to evaluate safety culture in nursing homes, the Survey on Resident Safety in Nursing Homes.

… study of physicians' attitudes toward professionalism. … Iezzoni LI, Rao SR, DesRoches CM, Vogeli C, Campbell EG. Survey shows that at …

This survey found significant differences between American and British physicians regarding several aspects of patient safety, including appropriateness of error disclosure, tolerance for disruptive behavior, and prior experience with formal patient safety training.

This study highlights the slow adoption of electronic health records in children's hospitals, with less than 3% having a comprehensive system in place. Hospital characteristics were not associated with implementation, and financing was the most important policy strategy identified to promote use.

Patient safety initiatives will increasingly balance the tension between systems change and individual accountability, and medical professionalism is often at the center of this discussion. Although certain behaviors in medical school predict unprofessional behavior, efforts to teach these skills have been described, particularly in addressing disruptive behavior. This study surveyed physicians and found that nearly 70% believe that it is their professional responsibility to report an impaired or incompetent colleague. However, of those with knowledge of such a colleague, 33% failed to report them to a relevant authority. Barriers to reporting included a belief that it wasn’t their responsibility, nothing would happen from reporting them, and fear of retribution. A related editorial discusses medical professionalism in the context of this study’s findings and weighs different strategies to address the challenges. A past AHRQ WebM&M conversation and commentary also discuss professionalism and patient safety.

Confirming a phenomenon noted in prior research, this study revealed that perception of safety culture varied widely across clinical units at a single academic hospital. The study utilized the AHRQ Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture.